The Puppeteer
by Deekz
Summary: The Turks & Cloud & Co. must push away old rivalries to battle a new enemy, with an unexpected someone caught between the good and the bad...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

(_Those who defile the lands…_)

Blood trickled from the soldier's mouth as he struggled to stand up. "I don't get it…how…could they?"

(_…bring plight upon all life…_)

"No one has tried to break into here for years…" the soldier croaked, coughing up more blood. "Why…why them…?"

There was a soft, purring sound…the soldier turned around. His eyes met with a black cat, its eyes staring at him pryingly.

(_…come to me…I call to you…_)

He fell back down on the ground, too weak to support his own weight. "Get out of here…damn cat…"

The cat walked up to the man, brushing its mouth against his cheek, letting out a low purr again. It ran its tongue against his wound, tasting his blood…

…and transformed into a woman of about twenty years, with dark violet hair and ruby eyes…black lipstick covered her lips, eyeliner running across her eyes filled with malice…she wore a long, black dress with purple & black feathers lining the collar and slits running from her upper leg down to the end of the dress which fell to her ankles…and with one fluent motion, she ran her scythe along the man's throat, killing him.

Smiling, the lady continued up the bloodstained hallway until she finally came into a chamber. There was nothing but a large cylinder that ran from the floor to the ceiling. Inside of it was nothing but a single materia, floating inside the cylinder. Next to it stood a man about the same age as the woman. He had short, jet black hair and wore a black trench coat with nothing but a black shirt and jeans underneath.

(_…Hakaisha…the Destroyers…my children…awaken me…_)

"Brother, you left someone alive," the woman said in a frighteningly perky voice, walking up to the man and kissing him on the cheek.

"And I supposed you killed him then, Kuroneko," he replied, nonchalant.

"Of course I did!" Kuroneko said. "_So_, Urami, is this what we're here for? Kakon…?"

Urami nodded silently.

Kuroneko placed her hands against the cool glass. "Kakon…oh, gracious Father…" she whispered.

*   *   *

"Oh, please, Hana?"

"No, Reno!" Hana replied. "For the fourth time…FUCK OFF! I am NOT going to go out with you!"

Reno pouted, watching his fellow Turk walk out. Long, black hair with blonde streaks, chestnut eyes and a Wutain complexion. Something that Reno found eye catching, being his own little self.

"No luck, huh?"

The unexpected voice startled Reno. "Nope…the rookie's tough. How's it with you and Elena?"

"Good, I guess," Rude replied coolly. 

The ringing of Reno's PHS made a sudden intrusion on their conversation. With a click, Reno turned it on. "Yo."

"Reno…" came a cranky voice from the other side. "There was an attack at one of the facilities at Sector 2. The Kakon 01 Facility…it's suppose to house something important in there. No one's touched it in years, even though it's heavily guarded. I want you guys to investigate. Cloud is going to come—"

"Wait, _Strife_ is going to come?" Reno hissed.

"Yes," Reeve said. "Listen, they're only coming to help investigate because supposedly it's something big. I'm not even sure what the thing is. I have to dig up the files. Don't argue with me, I don't have the time."

Reno sighed. "Fine, whatever." There was another click. Reeve didn't even leave a goodbye.

"What was that all about?" Rude asked, looking up at Reno.

"Some facility that we have to check out that was attacked. With Strife."

* * *

"I don't get it…" Elena said, turning a dead body over with her foot. "Why would someone want to break into a place as worthless as this?" She looked down at the man, whose terrified eyes stared right back at her. She immediately turned away.

Reno ran his hand through his unruly hair, just as perplexed as everyone else was. Something that he didn't like. "Hana, did you bring up anything?"

"Yes," she replied. "The facility holds something…it was called Kakon, or something like that. Or at least part of it."

"_Part_ of it?" Reno said, looking at her.

"Well, that's all the information that this thing says," Hana said, kicking it. "The rest has been too thrashed to recover anything. Reeve'll have to dig up all the files back at the HQ." She got up, the monitor finally succumbing to the damage it had received.

"But you're right, 'Lena," Reno said, kicking the ground. "I have no idea why someone would steal something from a crap-assed facility like this."

Hana sighed. "You know people. They never leave clues. Wanna keep you baffled so they won't get caught." She walked down the hallway, boots clicking against the hard metal floor. "That's why we have to look deeper…like, all of that psychology and crap. I think we should start here, anyway." She proceeded through one of the doors, which, although not open, was thoroughly ripped to shreds.

Rude, who stood silent all that time, heard Reno mutter something under his breath. He could distinctly make it out as, "Hey, aren't _I_ the lead investigator here?"

Hana nearly slipped on the thick fluid the coated the ground. She cursed as she regained her composure, examining what she saw. It was only a small room with flickering blue lights and a large cylinder tube that ran from the ceiling to the floor. She heard something crack under her foot. Glass. Someone obviously wanted to get in the manual way.

The oddest feeling overcame her; she didn't know what. Ignoring the feeling, she walked up to the glass and stared at it for a moment, but the feeling was indomitable. Something just wasn't right…

/flash/

"Mommy! I don't…I want to—" 

_"Just go, Hana!"_

_"Mommy! No!"_

_A gunshot…_

_"Mommy…"_

/flash/

"Hana? Hana, you alright?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

"Hana, you were—the FUCK?!"

Hana whirled around. The next thing she saw was a crackling nightstick in the air, a fallen bat, and many more behind it.

_A/N: Weee! The first chapter of the Puppeteer…I'm TRYING not to give up on this one, since in the past I've given up on many projects that always looked so hopeful. Sorry about that. X.o; I'm trying not to drop this project, but I have that ominous feeling that I _will _end up doing so._

_Argh, anyway, credits go to NanakiGirl87. One of the villains in her fic, _Society of the Hybrid_, inspired me to make Kuroneko and Urami. Yes, they are brother and sister, and yes, they did kiss each other, but I'm only throwing in the incest to show how dysfunctional they are. XD Anyway, feedback is always good…^^ I hope I didn't make the Turks OOC…x.o; Oh, and the first part of it was also inspired by something…the beginning of Angel Sanctuary, to be exact. Deekz can't come up with anything original these days…o.O_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

For a moment, Hana just stood motionless, bamboozled by the sudden attack.

"Don't just fucking SIT there, Hana!" Reno said, parrying an oncoming bat. "Do something!"

Snapped out of her bewilderedness by gunshots from Elena & Rude, Hana waved her hand over her Bolt material, whispering, "Bolt 2!"

In an instant, a giant bolt of electricity came dashing down from the ceiling, striking the bats who were nearest to Hana. In an instant, she unsheathed her crystal sword and slashed at any of the bats who dared come near. They were easy to strike down, and surprisingly slow for their slim appearance.

Something wasn't right about these bats. Enveloped in her thoughts, Hana had let her guard down. A screeching bat swooped down, its tiny but sharp claws digging into her shoulder. Hana struck the ear-splitting bat away before it could sink its fangs into her skin.

The bats were dwindling, but at an ever so slowly pace. There were still dozens of them left to contend with. As she continued to hack and slash, she felt herself going at a slower pace. The bats came nearer and concentrated on her instead of everyone else.

"Bolt 2!" again came the shower of lightning bolts, but again came another wall of bats that surrounded her. Her joints felt stiff and her breathing was slowing down. Hana was bewildered. What was happening?

Reno & the others tried to pry the bats away from Hana, but it was no use.Hana fumbled for her Full Cure materia, but it was too late. Paralysis took over her; she was immobilized as the horde of bats swooped down over her vulnerable body.

*  *  *

Hana slowly awoke, the darkness of the night welcoming her as she lay in the rather uncomfortable hospital bed.

_Okay, I was sent on some kind of investigation to this age old facility, then all of the sudden I hear voices, then the next thing I see are a whole bunch of bats swooping down on me, and then the next thing I know, I'm on the ground, barely able to breath and paralyzed,_ Hana thought, retracing the peculiar string of events. _Well, that doesn't help much._

Hana shifted in bed, but a sharp pang of pain shot through her arms as she attempted to lift herself up, accompanied by the sudden urge to vomit. She dropped back down on the bed, groaning.

"Hana?"

"Huh?! Elena…?" Hana turned her head to her left, finding Elena sitting on the chair, evidently drowsy. "What the—"

"—hell happened to you, right?" Elena finished the question for her.

"Er, yeah," Hana said.

"The doctor said something about neurotoxin in the bat's claws," Elena started. "Once your started to black out, the other bats swooped down and injected more poison into you. That's why you feel so sick; they had to give you a lot of anti-venoms."

"What about everyone else?" Hana inquired weakly. "Who got rid of the bats?"

"Cloud arrived in time to blast away the bats from your body with Ultima. All of the fighting really wrecked the place, though. Most of the evidence is gone, except for some fur that we found on a guy's body."

"…weird," came Hana's simplistic reply.

"You need to have some rest. Go back to sleep."

The thought of sleep was a good idea for Hana at that time, since the very idea of it made Hana tired. Closing her eyes, she fell asleep quickly.

*  *  * 

Hana awoke for a moment. She looked at the clock on the ceiling. It was 3:00 AM. Only an hour passed since she had woken up.

Her hairs on her neck prickled. Her attention was immediately drawn to the window. There stood a black cat, eyes glowing in the darkness.  Hana looked away, slightly spooked. She pulled herself together and fell asleep fitfully.

But the cat wouldn't stop looking at her, staring at her with its sinister glare.

Father, oh gracious Father… 

_A/N: Okay, you'll probably notice that this is considerably shorter than chapter 1. It's probably going to stay short, like, around 2 to 4 pages. I never really write long chapters; the only time I write long chapters is usually in the first chapter (I don't know why, maybe because I really want to get it off my chest and I write a lot…). Anyway, R/R please. It helps (and please give constructive criticism, because flames will be tossed in the river)._


End file.
